World’s Can’t Come Quick Enough: GB Team

 

Story posted March 27
By Larry Hickmott in Majorca

Home Page Track Worlds

 

Dave Brailsford Interview

Prior to the World Track Championships in Majorca, the head of the Great Britain Cycling team, Performance Director Dave Brailsford, says there is little pressure on the team except to bring back Rainbow jerseys!

 

He told britishcycling.org.uk "We can approach the Palma World Championship in the full knowledge that we are exactly where we want to be at this point prior to the Beijing Olympics."

 

"In the Team Pursuit for example, we were looking to go sub four minutes at this point in the Olympic cycle and we did that at Manchester (World Cup). Consequently we can relax and enjoy the Worlds and focus only on achieving the best performances possible which we hope will gain the team a few rainbow jerseys.”."

 

Read the interview in full >>>>>

 

Two Days to Go to Competition at Palma Worlds

 

 

First thing a senior member of the GB staff said to me on arrival in Palma was that the GB team wished the Track Worlds were starting the next day as the form across all the riders was there, everyone was well and the riders and staff alike, were itching to get going. To quote a well worn cliché, the waiting is always the worst and right now the riders have another day of training to endure before the competition kicks off on Thursday.

 

Spirit in the camp is high despite the wait and there was much laughter and banter at the breakfast table with staff Shane Sutton and Jan van Eijden the centre of much of it. It was a reasonable hour for breakfast as well, 8am, and by 10am, those going to the track were fuelled up and ready for the short ride to the  brand new Palma Velodrome.

 

On arrival, there was work going on still and probably will be for many months to come but the track and many of the facilities were up and running. In the track centre, workmen mingled with cyclists as they both got on with their respective work. It is quite an attractive venue, as it should be being new but there are problems with the actual track although some of these becoming less of a problem as the days go by.

 

Two things seem to stand out when riders talk about the track, the rough and bumpy nature of the track and the speed of it. Even at this early stage, staff are talking about possible World Records being set on this track during the competition and who knows, many of those may be by British riders.

 

To get a riders view on the board track, we spoke to Matt Crampton (in action right) as he warmed up on the rollers before going back out on it. “Its been pretty quick in training so far and everyone is going well on it” he explained. “It doesn’t have any straights to speak of and feels like the velodrome in Vienna (Austria). It’s got a nice line into the 200, a gradual push off the top and its easier to keep the speed.”

 

Matt certainly seems to like the shape compared to other tracks he has ridden but it is rough and the boards are splintering. One of the staff handed me a splinter and although quite thin (half a millimetre thick) it was certainly thick enough to perhaps cause problems with tyres, something GB has already seen with the rubber of the Vittoria tyres being used  cut enough for them to have to be taken off the wheels and new ones put on in their place.

 

“It’s pretty rough” Matt explained. I think they have laid the boards weather side up and the grain is a bit rough but they are improving every day with everyone riding on them. Right at the top of the track, it’s a bit bumpy and you can the tyre pinging off a board”.

 

Thankfully, neither the uneven height of the boards or the splintery nature of them, saw any problems for the GB riders and the session, a quiet one for the team, went smoothly. Less than half the team were at the track and they were well looked after by a large contingent of World Class staff. People such as Matt Parker (Endurance coach) and Shane Sutton (Track Performance Manager) who were looking after the riders doing the Team Pursuit and Jonny Bellis.

 

Shane Sutton talks Jonny Bellis through what he is looking for in a training effort on the track.

 

Of all the riders, Jonny Bellis had one of the biggest work loads with a standing start and flying pursuit effort with the times pleasing the staff at the side of the track. The Team Pursuit also had a hit out or at least most of them did. Whilst Bradley Wiggins went for a leisurely ride on the road, and Rob Hayles worked up a sweat on the rollers, Chris Newton, Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas and Paul Manning had a single shortened rolling Team Pursuit effort.

 

We spoke quickly to Ed Clancy  after the effort to ask how the team felt on this different shaped track. “It only took a little adjusting to” he told us. “Two efforts and we had a feel for the changes and the line to take on this track. Its looking good and feels quite nice.”

 

A little help from our friends

In Palma with Team GB is a large group of staff from the NW EIS. These include performance analysts and physios. During the week, britishcycling.org.uk will be looking at how they are helping the GB team to be at the forefront of performance analysis in track cycling.

 

Mike Hughes helps coach Matt Parker go through a replay of a Team Pursuit effort on the track.

 

Mike Hughes and Chris White of the North West EIS pictured here doing video analysis for Team GB where the coaches can gain objective data from what they produce rather than just looking at video and making subjective decisions based  on the moving pictures.

 

The importance of Mike and Chris's work to the team is acknowledged by the senior staff in the team. Far from just pointing a video camera at the action and recording it, they also do a lot of analysis work on that footage providing the riders and team with material they can take away and learn from. At a recent trial for example, the riders were able to take away from that profiles of their own performances at the trial and in competition to see why certain decisions were made for selections.

 

“The analysis helps us in a few ways” National Sprint Coach Iain Dyer told us. “With regard to Match Sprinting if we have a good handle on what our opponents strengths and weaknesses are, when we go into battle we feel better armed with that information and use that to our advantage. With the Time Trial events, our understanding of them is improving on a month by month basis and helps us with making important selections as well as helping coaches and riders alike in breaking events down.”

 

“The help we get from the EIS Performance Analysts and the help of Scott in particular who is assigned to help is specifically, I think we are now leading the way in regard to performance analysis as it relates to the sprint events. I think we are taking things to a new level and our understanding is coming on in leaps and bounds.”

 

Scott Gardner (pictured back at Manchester with Craig MacLean), a sports scientist who has a strong background in sprint cycling he got working with the Australian’s now helps the GB Sprint squad and is employed by the EIS in the North West.  Scott can normally be seen fixing and removing SRM boxes to the riders bikes in training but at the Worlds where the SRMs have been removed from the team’s bikes, he is helping the sprint coaches in other ways using his background in physiology to offer advice and feedback.

 

The Women Endurance riders arrived in Palma today and are pictured doing a roller session in the basement after the flight from England.

 

Luc de Wilde from Belgium has been working as a 'carer' for 10 months now with Team GB and helps keep the riders energy levels up as well as reduce the aches after a hard traininig session. It couldn't be more different to his part time job back in Belgium as a plumber! Known to the riders in Team GB as well as many back in Belgium, Luc is one of three staff helping care for the riders with the others being Tony Carpenter and Phil Burt, a physio from the EIS.

 

Photos From Tuesday, March 27

 

Jamie Staff was in action today in training.

 

Anna Blyth looked relaxed in the training camp in Palma prior to her first World Championships.

 

Chris Newton leads the Team Pursuit through a single effort in training.

 

Geraint Thomas at speed on the Palma track today.

 

Workman at the side of track still getting it ready for competition.